07/14 -- Iranian forces hit tankers after third night of US attacks; The Ghost in the State
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Thomas L. Knapp
Jul 14, 2026, 6:14:02 AM (13 days ago) Jul 14
to Freedom News Daily
Freedom News Daily, 07/14/26
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Iranian forces hit tankers after third night of US attacks
2) Judge halts Trump’s settlement with IRS
3) Hungary: Parliament passes constitutional amendment to remove Orbán-era president
4) SC: McMaster appoints Graham’s sister to finish his US Senate term
5) MN: Prosecutors get long-withheld evidence in Good, Pretti murders
6) Guinea-Bissau: Junta Court Orders Opposition Leader Back to Jail
7) Trump regulators move to curtail lending to immigrants without Very Special Important Permission Slips
8) Colombia: Petro blocks military inauguration for successor
9) Paramount, WBD hit with lawsuit from 12 states, including California, to block merger
10) Hegseth says US regime is creating task force to prosecute leaks to news media
11) South Africa: Blow to corruption case as key suspect pulls out of plea deal
12) India: Inflation accelerates to 4.38% in June, exceeding forecasts
13) EU rallies dozens of nations to pledge $1 billion for recovery fund in Gaza
14) El Salvador: Party nominates Bukele for third term as president
15) ME: ICE gang murders driver
16) Keystone Pipeline System’s Operator Agrees to Pay a $26.9 Million Penalty Over a Major Kansas Oil Spill
17) New era for Gibraltar with removal of 118-year-old border controls with Spain
18) EU: Von der Leyen fantasizes about censoring Internet for kids
19) CA: Infinite scroll may become endangered if controversial state law passes
20) US DOJ investigating allegations against UAW president Shawn Fain
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Ghost in the State
22) The Problem Isn’t Old Public Officials
23) Hiding Racism and Nativism Behind “Heritage American”
24) While the Political Circus Distracts Us, Flock Builds the Digital Police State
25) Microlooters and Macrolooters
26) Graham Platner and the Rationalization of Everything
27) Trump’s Health Is … Complicated
28) Congressional Ratification of President Trump’s Corporatism
29) Lindsey Graham’s Legacy? It’s About One Thing Only, and It Isn’t Good
30) DEI“A” Directive Denied
31) The Democratic Socialists Aren’t Fringe Anymore
32) A Doctor in the Chemist’s
33) It’s Been Ten Years; Time To Admit Bernie Sanders Was Wrong
34) $6 million a day: Trump’s disclosures show he is the swamp’s biggest monster
35) The Best Thing About Wokeness
36) Don’t Blame the Billionaires, Change the Incentives
37) NY business group campaigns to end “Prohibition-era” alcohol restrictions statewide
38) The Digital Euro’s New Chapter
39) First Amendment Protects Universities From Florida’s Stop WOKE Act
40) Keeping Cool: The Air Conditioner That Changed America
41) NATO 3.0 Emerges Alive and Dangerous from the Ankara Summit
42) A new US-Iran war would end where the last one did
43) Magnificent Humanity, Poor Economics
44) Graham Crackers: The Words of a Professional Warmonger
45) Is China funding the Democratic Socialist wave in US politics?
46) Trump’s New Iran Strikes Are Turning Failure Into a Wider Disaster
47) Let’s Rethink the Primary Process for 2028
48) Lindsey Graham Dies at 71: A Libertarian Review of His Legacy
49) Maine’s Hybrid Nomination Can Harness Grassroots Energy
50) Lindsey Graham and Our Vile Pro-War Culture
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 07/13/26
52) Rising, 07/13/26
53) Radio Atlantic, 07/13/26
54) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 07/13/26
55) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/13/26
56) EconTalk, 07/13/26
57) The Reconstruction Agenda, 07/13/26
58) Pink Flame of Liberty, 07/12/26
59) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 09/12/26
60) Free Talk Live, 07/12/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Iranian forces hit tankers after third night of US attacks
Source: Reuters
“The US military carried out a third night of strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump said he is reinstating its blockade of Iranian shipping. The United Arab Emirates says at least two tankers came under Iranian fire in the Strait of Hormuz that Iran insists it has the right to control. Trump earlier declared the United States would ensure the Hormuz strait is open and said it would charge a 20% fee. Bahrain and Jordan say they have intercepted new Iranian attacks on Tuesday as Tehran retaliates with missiles and drones across the Gulf.” (07/14/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/iran-war-live-us-launches-new-strikes-iran-more-tankers-attacked-hormuz-2026-07-14/
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2) Judge halts Trump’s settlement with IRS
Source: The Hill
“A federal judge Monday voided President Trump’s settlement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), finding that the lawsuit that served as the hook for the $1.776 billion so-called Anti-Weaponization fund amounted to collusion as the two parties were never truly averse. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams comes after she was asked to reopen the case [by] intervenors who said a settlement to create an ‘anti-weaponization’ fund tainted the case. … Williams found that Trump’s $10 billion case against the IRS was ‘brought for an improper purpose—to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a ‘settlement’ that had no viable basis in law or fact.”’ As part of the order, the judge also referred Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito to the Florida bar for consideration of disciplinary action after finding that sanctions were warranted.” (07/13/26)
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5966060-trump-irs-settlement-voided-federal-judge
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3) Hungary: Parliament passes constitutional amendment to remove Orbán-era president
Source: ABC News
“Hungary’s Parliament voted Monday to pass a constitutional amendment aimed at removing President Tamás Sulyok, part of an effort by the country’s new leadership to dismantle the autocratic political system of former prime minister Viktor Orbán. After winning in a landslide election in April, Prime Minister Péter Magyar and his pro-European, center-right Tisza party hold a two-thirds majority in Parliament, allowing them to make constitutional changes and roll back many of the policies Orbán implemented during his 16 years in power. The constitutional amendment, which had the stated purpose of ‘restoring rule-of-law democracy,’ passed with 139 votes for and six against. Tisza lawmakers held a standing ovation after the vote, while lawmakers from Orbán’s far-right Fidesz party boycotted the parliamentary session.” (07/13/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/hungary-passes-constitutional-amendment-remove-orbn-era-president-134720264
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4) SC: McMaster appoints Graham’s sister to finish his US Senate term
Source: NBC News
“South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday appointed Darline Graham Nordone, the sister of Sen. Lindsey Graham, to serve the remainder of the late Republican senator’s term, which ends in early January. … Graham Nordone will finish her brother’s six-year term, which ends Jan. 3. The senator died Saturday at the age of 71 of what was preliminarily diagnosed as a rupture of his aorta due to a hardening of his arteries, his office said Sunday. … It’s unclear if Graham Nordone would want to run for her brother’s seat. Graham had been seeking a fifth term in the Senate in this year’s midterm elections after defeating a wealthy GOP challenger in his state’s Republican primary last month.” (07/13/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/trump-lindsey-graham-sister-darline-mcmaster-appoint-senate-term-rcna587302
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5) MN: Prosecutors get long-withheld evidence in Good, Pretti murders
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Previously withheld evidence regarding the [murders] of Renée Good and Alex Pretti is now in the hands of Minnesota prosecutors, helping the state gain clarity on the [murders] that occurred earlier this year during protests against a federal immigration crackdown. ‘Through the cooperation of our federal partners, we have obtained hard drives of previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis,’ the Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said in a video statement posted on social media. The newly obtained evidence includes Good’s car, statements, police body-camera video and other evidence that federal officials had previously withheld in the [murders].” (07/13/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/13/renee-good-alex-pretti-minnesota-evidence
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6) Guinea-Bissau: Junta Court Orders Opposition Leader Back to Jail
Source: US News & World Report
“Guinea-Bissau opposition leader and former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira was moved back to prison last Friday following a decision by the West African country’s military court, his family told Reuters. The junta that seized power in Guinea-Bissau in a coup last year released Pereira, the leader of the revolutionary PAIGC party, in February in an apparent attempt to appease the West African regional bloc ECOWAS. He had remained under house arrest on suspicion of economic crimes. … Pereira was previously detained on November 26 when a group of army officers seized power before the planned announcement of presidential election results.” (07/13/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-07-13/guinea-bissau-military-court-orders-opposition-leader-back-to-jail
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7) Trump regulators move to curtail lending to immigrants without Very Special Important Permission Slips
Source: Politico
“Federal regulators on Monday directed banks and credit unions to more closely scrutinize the loans they make to immigrants who are in the country illegally [sic], as part of the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown. In new guidance, regulators said that undocumented immigrants may present an ‘elevated credit risk’ and warned banks to account for the risk that they may lose their job or be deported as they underwrite new loans. Financial institutions, the guidance says, should take into account that a customer’s status as an unauthorized immigrant may pose a risk to their ability to repay credit cards, mortgages, auto loans or other loans.” (07/13/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/13/trump-regulators-move-to-curtail-lending-to-undocumented-immigrants-00994688
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8) Colombia: Petro blocks military inauguration for successor
Source: United Press International
“Outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro has barred President-elect Abelardo De la Espriella from holding his inauguration at a military base, triggering an unprecedented institutional dispute that has clouded the transfer of power and underscored the country’s deep political polarization. Citing his authority as commander-in-chief of the armed forces until Aug. 7, the leftist president blocked De la Espriella’s plan to take the oath of office before military personnel. The incoming government had sought to use the ceremony to signal a sharp break with the outgoing administration’s security policies.” (07/13/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/07/13/latam-colombia-petro-bars-Espriella-military-base-inauguration/5521783958093/
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9) Paramount, WBD hit with lawsuit from 12 states, including California, to block merger
Source: CNBC
“A group of 12 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging Paramount Skydance’s
proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The lawsuit seeking to block the merger for antitrust concerns was brought by a group including California Attorney General Rob Bonta. CNBC’s David Faber reported earlier that the lawsuit was expected to come on Monday. Representatives for Paramount and Bonta didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The deal would combine two storied film studios — Paramount and Warner Bros. — as well as streaming platforms Paramount+ and HBO Max.” (07/13/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/13/paramount-wbd-merger-lawsuit.html
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10) Hegseth says US regime is creating task force to prosecute leaks to news media
Source: Reuters
“The U.S. Department of Justice and the Pentagon have created a joint task force to identify and prosecute what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information to news media. ‘I have delegated tasking authority to the War Department’s [sic] Office of General Counsel, empowering OGC to request and receive all information, records, and support across the department concerning media leak investigations,’ Hegseth said in a video posted to X.” [editor’s note: The War Department doesn’t have an Office of General Counsel because the War Department doesn’t exist – TLK] (07/13/26)
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-creates-task-force-prosecute-leaks-news-media-hegseth-says-2026-07-13/
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11) South Africa: Blow to corruption case as key suspect pulls out of plea deal
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Vusimusi ‘Cat’ Matlala, a key figure in a ongoing police corruption inquiry in South Africa, has withdrawn from a controversial plea deal, serving a blow to prosecutors. The business tycoon pulled out of the agreement after a South African court recommended a higher jail sentence – 12 years instead of the agreed eight. Matlala was accused of bribing top police officials to win a 360m rand ($22m; £16.5m) tender for his health company Medicare24 in 2024. He pleaded guilty last month, as part of a deal that could have seen Matlala giving key evidence against senior officials. Though disappointed by Matlala’s U-turn, the state still believes it has a ‘strong and winnable case’, Kaizer Kganyago, a spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) told journalists on Monday.” (07/13/26)
https://archive.is/hnIax
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12) India: Inflation accelerates to 4.38% in June, exceeding forecasts
Source: CNBC
“India’s consumer price inflation rose to 4.38% in June, up from 3.93% in May as the U.S.-Iran war and a weak monsoon raised food and fuel prices, adding to cost pressures. The headline inflation number was above economists’ expectations for a 4.30% rise, according to a Reuters poll. … Last month, India’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged but said it expects inflation to rise and growth to temper in the financial year ending March 2027.” (07/13/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/13/india-june-inflation-oil-food-iran-war.html
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13) EU rallies dozens of nations to pledge $1 billion for recovery fund in Gaza
Source: SFGate
“The European Union coordinated efforts to raise 900 million euros ($1 billion) in aid for Gaza, working with 65 governments and organizations including the White House and the United Nations, the bloc’s top diplomat said Monday. Kaja Kallas announced the fund after a meeting of the Palestine Donors Group in Brussels. ‘The EU is the most credible supporter, for the Palestinian people. We are the largest donor and the strongest backer of the two-state solution,’ she said. The meeting was the second gathering of the Team Gaza Initiative, an effort by the EU to rally support for recovery projects like sanitation and farming in the destitute and war-ravaged coastal enclave of some 2 million people.” (07/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/eu-rallies-dozens-of-nations-to-pledge-1-billion-22343244.php
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14) El Salvador: Party nominates Bukele for third term as president
Source: Yahoo! News
“El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has secured the nomination of his ruling Nuevas Ideas party for the 2027 presidential election, the party said late on Sunday, following legal changes that cleared the way for his seeking a third term. … In July 2025, the ruling party’s allies in Congress dismantled previous constitutional safeguards and approved new measures that allow indefinite presidential reelection.” (07/13/26)
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/el-salvador-presidents-party-nominates-115541893.html
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15) ME: ICE gang murders driver
Source: New York Post
“A driver was shot dead Monday while [supposedly] trying to mow down Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [gang members] in Maine, according to authorities. Graphic footage on social media shows a man lying by the side of the road near a car, with a bullet hole visible through the driver’s side of the front windshield following the incident in Biddeford just after 7:15 a.m., the Portland Press Herald reported. The unidentified driver reportedly accelerated at ICE [gang members] at an intersection in the small town before the officers shot him dead, eyewitnesses said. … Details on the fatal shooting are still coming through, although locals reported seeing an increase in ICE [gang] activity in Biddeford in recent weeks.” (07/13/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/13/us-news/ice-fatally-shoots-driver-in-maine-after-he-tried-to-mow-down-agents-authorities/
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16) Keystone Pipeline System’s Operator Agrees to Pay a $26.9 Million Penalty Over a Major Kansas Oil Spill
Source: US News & World Report
“A proposed legal settlement with the U.S. government would require the Keystone Pipeline system’s operator to pay a $26.9 million civil penalty over a major oil spill in Kansas in December 2022 and spend about $40 million more to prevent future accidents. The agreement would resolve allegations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Kansas that South Bow, based in Canada, violated U.S. and state clean water laws. The rupture dumped nearly 13,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a creek running through a rural pasture in Washington County, Kansas, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City.” (07/12/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kansas/articles/2026-07-12/keystone-pipeline-systems-operator-agrees-to-pay-a-26-9m-penalty-over-a-major-kansas-oil-spill
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17) New era for Gibraltar with removal of 118-year-old border controls with Spain
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Every weekday morning, Shilpi Chotrani rides her bicycle from her home in the Spanish town of La Línea de la Concepción to Gibraltar. It’s a short journey but it means crossing an international border. A British Overseas Territory of around 40,000 inhabitants, Gibraltar has a border control for those entering and leaving. That means that during the morning and afternoon rush hours, when around 15,000 Spaniards who work in the territory cross the frontier, there can be long, time-consuming queues. … But from 15 July, it is scheduled to see a new development – the removal of the border, allowing freedom of movement between Spain and Gibraltar.” (07/13/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwydz60j3eno
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18) EU: Von der Leyen fantasizes about censoring Internet for kids
Source: Politico
“The European Union will [pretend it has the ability to] impose a minimum age for young internet users to access social media without parental supervision, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday. … Von der Leyen said the bloc would consider age restrictions for other online services too, and will start work on determining which platforms are harmful [sic] to minors.” (07/13/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/vdl-announces-age-restrictions-for-social-media-and-other-platforms/
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19) CA: Infinite scroll may become endangered if controversial state law passes
Source: SFGate
“Social media companies might soon be forced to remove the addictive features that keep teenagers online for hours on end — including the ubiquitous infinite scroll. Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach, initially introduced Assembly Bill 1709 in February as a proposal that would prohibit teenagers from using social media platforms that are designed to be dangerously addictive. But after deliberations over several hearings in the California Legislature between lawmakers, advocates and a prominent Big Tech lobby, all agreed that age-gating the internet could ultimately do more harm than good. So, last month, Lowenthal amended his bill to instead require the companies, including behemoths like Meta and Reddit, to come up with an alternative, less addictive feed for underage users. If the companies can’t abide, then kids under 16 will be unable to make accounts on their platforms.” (07/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/meta-social-media-teenagers-22337724.php
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20) US DOJ investigating allegations against UAW president Shawn Fain
Source: Fortune
“The US Justice Department launched a grand jury investigation into allegations that the head of the United Auto Workers pressured another high-ranking union official to secure benefits for his fiancée and her sister, according to internal communications within the labor organization. A federal grand jury has subpoenaed the union’s court-appointed monitor as it probes the claims against President Shawn Fain, according to emails seen by Bloomberg News. The messages were sent to Fain, UAW Vice President Rich Boyer and members of the law firm representing the union. Fain called the allegations ‘false’ in a statement to Bloomberg and accused Boyer, whose complaints to the monitor drew early scrutiny to union leadership, of trying to influence the upcoming UAW election.” (07/12/26)
https://fortune.com/2026/07/12/doj-investigation-grand-jury-uaw-president-shawn-fain/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Ghost in the State
Source: Liberalism.org
by Michael C Munger
“British philosopher Gilbert Ryle famously mocked Descartes’s notion of mind/body dualism, dubbing it ‘the ghost in the machine.’ The mind is in the body, but it’s not of the body. The mind controls the body, independently, ‘everywhere yet nowhere.’ There is a related problem in identifying a ‘will’ in the state: is the state the sort of thing that can have an active, separate will? Or is the will of the state simply the aggregate of individual goals, actions, and votes? The branch of political theory I inhabit, public choice, holds that ghosts don’t exist, because a foundational assumption is methodological individualism. But many people have argued for a romantic, collectivist approach.” (07/13/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/the-ghost-in-the-state
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22) The Problem Isn’t Old Public Officials
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“With the death of 71-year-old U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham and the hospitalization of 84-year-old U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, not to mention the 80-year-old President Trump, some commentators are questioning whether it’s a good thing that the federal government has so many senior citizens working in it. … The problem America faces, however, is not the old age of its federal officials but rather the dysfunctional systems that 20th-century and 21st-century Americans have grafted onto the federal government. Those systems have brought failure, death, and destruction of liberty and privacy. The result would be no different if the federal government were being run by people with an average age of 45.” (07/13/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/07/13/the-problem-isnt-old-public-officials/
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23) Hiding Racism and Nativism Behind “Heritage American”
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye
“Ayn Rand captured the moral bankruptcy of racism better than almost anyone when she wrote that it is ‘the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.’ She understood that racism reduces human beings to representatives of a group, assigning moral, social, and political significance to ancestry rather than treating people as individuals. That’s why phrases like ‘heritage American’ bother me. The phrase is deliberately vague. … Every American has a heritage. The descendants of enslaved people have one. The descendants of Ellis Island immigrants have one. The children of Vietnamese refugees have one. Native Americans certainly have one. Heritage isn’t the distinguishing feature. The phrase only makes sense if ‘heritage’ refers to a particular ancestry that some people believe is more authentically American than others.” (07/13/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/hiding-racism-and-nativism-behind
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24) While the Political Circus Distracts Us, Flock Builds the Digital Police State
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“The government is watching. It watches where you go, whom you meet, where you worship, what medical offices you visit, what political rallies you attend, what protests you join, what books you read, what websites you visit and what causes you support. It watches through your phone, your car, your doorbell, your appliances, your purchases, your social media accounts and the cameras positioned along the roads you travel every day. This is how freedom dies in the digital police state: not always through dramatic declarations of martial law or soldiers stationed on every street corner, but through the gradual construction of a technological dragnet—an electronic concentration camp—so pervasive that privacy becomes impossible and anonymity becomes suspicious.” (07/13/26)
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/while_the_political_circus_distracts_us_flock_builds_the_digital_police_state
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25) Microlooters and Macrolooters
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“Jennifer Baker, PhD, receives about $100,000 per year in monetary compensation, plus an additional ~$30,000 in benefits. Because she works at a state university—The University of Charleston—supported by both state and federal taxpayers, she is the direct beneficiary of what we might call macrolooting. Her salary depends, at least in part, on compulsory taxation, placing her in the comfortable position of evaluating the ethics of breaching paywalls while leaving the coercive institutions that fund her livelihood unexamined. … ‘let’s turn now to the subject of ‘microlooting.’ Here, Baker opens a recent Psychology Today post. ‘If you deliberately scan one fewer lemon than you are taking at the self-checkout at Whole Foods, you might be ‘microlooting.'” (07/13/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/microlooters-and-macrolooters
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26) Graham Platner and the Rationalization of Everything
Source: American Greatness
by Stephen Soukup
“Regular readers may note that I am rather deeply haunted by a paragraph written almost exactly a decade ago by the late, great Angelo Codevilla. It was, perhaps, his most important warning to us, and it remains one of the few political predictions ever made that keeps me awake at night. In the waning days of the 2016 campaign, after watching the way the entire ruling class had mobilized to deride Donald Trump and to ensure his defeat, Codevilla penned an essay titled After the Republic, in which he forewarned: We have stepped over the threshold of a revolution. It is difficult to imagine how we might step back, and futile to speculate where it will end. Our ruling class’s malfeasance, combined with insult, brought it about. Donald Trump did not cause it and is by no means its ultimate manifestation.” (07/13/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/13/graham-platner-and-the-rationalization-of-everything/
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27) Trump’s Health Is … Complicated
Source: Persuasion
by Sam Kahn
“He isn’t as decrepit as Democrats pretend. But Republicans are slowly imagining a post-Trump world.” (07/13/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/trump-is-old-but-senile-probably
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28) Congressional Ratification of President Trump’s Corporatism
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul
“Despite regularly denouncing the rising socialist menace, President Trump has been pursuing a policy arguably just as, if not more, dangerous to liberty and prosperity as anything proposed by Zohran Mamdani or Bernie Sanders: using government funds to purchase partial ownership of private companies. The Trump administration has obtained ownership interests of approximately 27 billion dollars in 30 companies since January of 2025. While President Trump and his defenders claim making these ‘investments’ will benefit the American people, the truth is this policy will harm most Americans.” (07/13/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/congressional-ratification-of-president-trumps-corporatism
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29) Lindsey Graham’s Legacy? It’s About One Thing Only, and It Isn’t Good
Source: The New Republic
by Michael Tomasky
“He alone had the moral authority within the Republican Party to try to stop Donald Trump, especially after January 6. He chose not to. That’s what we must remember today.” (07/13/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/212980/lindsey-graham-legacy-trump-enabler
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30) DEI“A” Directive Denied
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Daymon Johnson has been fighting to speak freely. A professor at Bakersfield College, a community college in California, Johnson has for years been bucking a mandate that he parrot the state’s ‘DEI’ and ‘anti-racist’ ideology — well, DEIA now: ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ — lest he face disciplinary action or receive the boot. Community colleges, remember, are creations of the state, and Professor Johnson was being forced, by state directive, to mouth specific bureaucratic verbiage as if he were a mere functionary under a central planning board. … this imperfect ruling paves the way for further vindications.” (07/13/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/07/13/deia-directive-denied/
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31) The Democratic Socialists Aren’t Fringe Anymore
Source: Town Hall
by Jay Rogers
“I spend my days reading growth curves. A pension fund’s unfunded liability, a private equity fund’s internal rate of return, a hedge fund’s drawdown. You learn to read a line on a chart the way a doctor reads one on a different kind of monitor. Most political organizations produce a flat line for decades, a small bump around an election, then flat again. The Democratic Socialists of America just produced a line that would get flagged in any diligence memo I’ve written in 30 years. An organization with 6,000 members in 2015 crossed 100,000 in February 2026, and by this July had passed the old high-water mark for American socialism: the roughly 113,000 members the Socialist Party of America claimed at its 1912 peak under Eugene Debs. DSA now calls itself, correctly, the largest socialist organization in American history.” (07/13/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/jay-rogers/2026/07/13/the-democratic-socialists-arent-fringe-anymore-n2679278
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32) A Doctor in the Chemist’s
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie
“There is a small alcove at the back of most chemist shops these days, usually curtained off, where a pharmacist jabs your arm with a flu vaccine or a Covid booster while you sit with your sleeve rolled up. It is, in its modest way, one of the great quiet successes of British healthcare over the last decade. Nobody voted for it, nobody legislated it into being with a grand ten-year plan, and yet it works. It exists because Boots and Superdrug and the local independents worked out that people would pay a small sum for convenience, speed, and the absence of a three-week wait. I propose that we should extend this principle, and put a doctor in there as well.” (07/13/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/a-doctor-in-the-chemists
-----
33) It’s Been Ten Years; Time To Admit Bernie Sanders Was Wrong
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Everyone’s talking about how progressive Democrat Graham Platner has been forced to drop out of his Senate race following allegations of sexual assault. Personally I never paid attention to Platner’s campaign, because I long ago stopped taking Democrats seriously. The first clue that Platner was a shitty person wasn’t his military service or his Blackwater stint or his tattoo or the sexual assault stuff, it was that he ran for high office in the US government under one of America’s two mainstream parties. That’s damning in and of itself. I said this on Twitter today and some DSA guy told me the best way to make changes in US politics is to work within the Democratic Party to elect left-wing candidates and advance progressive agendas.” (07/10/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/10/its-been-ten-years-its-time-to-admit-bernie-sanders-was-wrong/
-----
34) $6 million a day: Trump’s disclosures show he is the swamp’s biggest monster
Source: The Hill
by Svante Myrick
“President Trump told his followers he would ‘drain the swamp.’ Instead, he became the biggest swamp monster ever. He has obliterated the line between public service and personal enrichment. Trump’s recent financial disclosures revealed that he made $2.2 billion in the year since he returned to office. That is a breathtaking figure. It is more than 20 times the annual budget of the city of Ithaca, N.Y., where I served as mayor for 10 years. In other words, Trump raked in, on average, more than $6 million a day, seven days a week.” (07/13/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5963054-trump-corruption-financial-disclosures/
-----
35) The Best Thing About Wokeness
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“What’s the best thing about wokeness? Simple: Holding people in the past to universal moral standards. History is packed with mass murder, slavery, and other atrocities, often committed by famous beloved figures like Columbus and the American Founding Fathers. When confronted with these harsh realities, most thinkers try to weasel out with a variation on, ‘It was a very different time.’ The woke, on the other hand, want to not only teach kids about mass murder and slavery, but tear down the statues of mass murderers and slavers. Which is the rational position. … Sadly, wokeness aggressively refuses to universalize its own universalism. If we should hold people in the past to universal moral standards, we should also hold people in the present to universal moral standards, not credulously accept lame, lawyerly excuses like, ‘In their culture, this is normal’ or ‘Given their life story, we mustn’t blame them.'” (07/13/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/the-best-thing-about-wokeness
-----
36) Don’t Blame the Billionaires, Change the Incentives
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith
“One way a person can become a billionaire is by providing people with a product or service they want. As various economists have pointed out, the money people use to acquire the product or service is like a vote cast. The votes can change overnight if the entrepreneur fails to deliver what people want at a price they can afford, or if a competitor offers something people perceive as better or cheaper. This process of voluntary production and exchange is the free market in action. But security agencies are needed to keep this process free of coercion. … If government stayed in the role of rights-protector the market might function smoothly. But it has never remained confined to that purpose. The idea of ‘protection’ has expanded over time to become a lucrative racket.” (07/13/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/dont-blame-billionaires-change-incentives
-----
37) NY business group campaigns to end “Prohibition-era” alcohol restrictions statewide
Source: Fox News
by Lindsay Kornick
“The Business Council of New York State is seeking to repeal ‘Prohibition-era’ alcohol laws. The New York Post reported that the organization launched its ‘New Yorkers Cheers for Change’ campaign on Sunday, pushing a proposal that would counter the state’s restrictions on alcohol sales. ‘New York has some of the most restrictive Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) laws the entire nation because they were created during the Prohibition-era. Current ABC laws impede economic growth, job opportunities, consumer choice, and New York’s own wine and distilled spirits industry,’ the organization’s website read. The ‘Cheers for Change’ campaign followed the 2023 Commission to Study Reform of the Alcohol Beverage Control Law, launched under New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, to recommend ways to update state laws, such as relaxing its 200 Foot Law and 500 Foot Law.” (07/13/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/new-york-business-group-campaigns-end-prohibition-era-alcohol-restrictions-statewide
-----
38) The Digital Euro’s New Chapter
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes
“In the end, the digital euro does not liberate Europe, modernize it, or make payments more convenient. It merely changes who holds control, shifting it from American private companies to European public authorities, and strengthens that control in the process. At its core, this project reveals a profound civilizational choice: money ceases to belong primarily to individuals, as the state assumes the power to define the limits of financial freedom.” (07/13/26)
https://fee.org/articles/the-digital-euros-new-chapter/
-----
39) First Amendment Protects Universities From Florida’s Stop WOKE Act
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“The cure for a regime of establishment-approved ideology does not come from government censorship of conversations. That should be clear to anybody who believes in freedom, and it’s a point strongly made by a federal appeals court in overruling Florida’s Stop WOKE Act. Saying the First Amendment is incompatible with ‘an official government line—in a college classroom of all places,’ the court overruled the state’s effort to battle ideological orthodoxy by imposing its own orthodoxy.” (07/13/26)
https://reason.com/2026/07/13/first-amendment-protects-universities-from-floridas-stop-woke-act/
-----
40) Keeping Cool: The Air Conditioner That Changed America
Source: The Daily Economy
by Gale Pooley
“With sweltering temperatures once again gripping much of the world, it is worth appreciating air conditioning — the quiet invention that transforms dangerous heat into manageable discomfort, shields millions from heat-related suffering and death, boosts productivity, and makes once-hostile climates livable. It is a powerful reminder that wealth, innovation, and human ingenuity enable societies to adapt to nature’s extremes and protect human life. To understand why the US heat death rate is 59 times lower than that of Europe, it helps to begin with a young engineer named Willis Carrier.” (07/13/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/keeping-cool-the-air-conditioner-that-changed-america/
-----
41) NATO 3.0 Emerges Alive and Dangerous from the Ankara Summit
Source: Common Dreams
by Joseph Gerson
“Despite its well-advertised tensions and tectonic geopolitical changes, this week’s NATO summit demonstrated that NATO has survived and is resilient. It remains committed to reinforcing US hegemony across Europe and globally. Not a lot has changed since former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote that US global dominance relies on controlling the periphery of Eurasia: NATO in the West, in Southwest Asia to the South, as well as its Asia-Pacific allies from South Korea and Japan through the Philippines and Australia. In the 21st century, military planning as well as trade is deeply integrated across these three regions. The Summit served to reinforce what is emerging as a new bloc system for our yet to be named era. Threatened by the US and NATO, as John Mearsheimer remarked, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea each see the US as a mortal enemy.” (07/13/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ankara-nato-summit
-----
42) A new US-Iran war would end where the last one did
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Trita Parsi
“For all practical purposes, the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of (Mis)Understanding is over. The dispute over how to manage the Strait of Hormuz in the interim has pushed the two sides back into open war. But to what end? There is little reason to believe another round of fighting can alter the fundamentals enough to change the reality from which the two sides must ultimately negotiate. If they are fortunate, the MOU’s collapse may yield another round of talks in which the allure of reshaping facts on the ground through force has finally faded.” (07/13/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/iran-mou-hormuz/
-----
43) Magnificent Humanity, Poor Economics
Source: Law & Liberty
by Samuel Gregg
“Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (MH), seeks to inject wisdom into a discussion often dominated by two extremes. The first is a wild-eyed techno-utopianism that would drag us into what the Cambridge literary critic F. R. Leavis called a ‘technologico-Benthamite civilization.’ The second is a techno-catastrophism inclined to see every technological development as an existential threat to humanity. In many ways, MH is an impressive document. … There is, however, one matter that has been passed over too lightly. This concerns MH’s commentary on economic questions.” (07/13/26)
https://lawliberty.org/magnificent-humanity-poor-economics/
-----
44) Graham Crackers: The Words of a Professional Warmonger
Source: CounterPunch
by Jeffrey St. Clair
“Ultimately, Lindsey Graham will go down as an inconsequential figure in American history, a bloodthirsty cheerleader for some of the nation’s most disastrous wars who lacked the courage to stand up for the few convictions he once held. To paraphrase Henry Kissinger on Bill Clinton being called a war criminal, ‘Lindsey Graham doesn’t have the moral fortitude to be consigned to the 9th Circle of Hell with the A-listers.’ He’ll have to settle for some more obscure region of eternal torment, where nobody will even recall his name.” (07/13/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/13/graham-crackers-the-words-of-a-professional-warmonger/
-----
45) Is China funding the Democratic Socialist wave in US politics?
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Beware: The Chinese Communist Party is plainly exploiting the opaque ownership structure of multinational tech companies to fund far-left political subversion across America. Shanghai-based Maoist tech millionaire Neville Roy Singham is a notorious funder of outfits like the crypto-communist People’s Forum, which organizes radical protest-riots in support of Hamas terrorism and protecting the butchers who control Iran; his wife co-leads extremist Code Pink while his niece is a big player in the Democratic Socialists of America and a prominent adviser to Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Singhams got crazy-rich in the tech industry, but you have to wonder if Beijing staged their success to ‘wash’ a vast fortune that could then undermine the United States, the chief barrier to CCP world domination.” (07/13/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/13/opinion/is-china-funding-the-democratic-socialist-wave-in-us-politics/
-----
46) Trump’s New Iran Strikes Are Turning Failure Into a Wider Disaster
Source: Antiwar.com
by Brian Hudson
“The easiest mistake in war is to confuse the ability to strike again with proof that the previous strike worked. Donald Trump is making that mistake in Iran. The latest U.S. attacks may destroy more military assets and infrastructure, but they do not answer the political question that has haunted this war from the beginning: what outcome is all this destruction supposed to produce?” (07/13/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/brian_hudson/2026/07/12/trumps-new-iran-strikes-are-turning-failure-into-a-wider-disaster/
-----
47) Let’s Rethink the Primary Process for 2028
Source: Liberal Currents
by David Faris
“Primary season is closer than you think— can Democrats avoid their most damaging mistakes of 2020?” (07/12/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/its-time-to-rethink-the-2028-primary-process/
-----
48) Lindsey Graham Dies at 71: A Libertarian Review of His Legacy
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Senator Graham spent 23 years expanding government surveillance and funding foreign wars. Voters must now demand leaders who protect individual freedom and reject intervention.” (07/12/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/lindsey-graham-dies-at-71-a-libertarian
-----
49) Maine’s Hybrid Nomination Can Harness Grassroots Energy
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“This week kicks off a 14-day sprint to choose the Democratic nominee in Maine, a race that could decide the U.S. Senate. When it became clear that Graham Platner wasn’t going to remain the nominee, I wrote that keeping the record number of Mainers who turned out for last month’s primary engaged and energized required a process that would allow them to participate, rather than a backroom affair. The Maine Democratic Party came up with something that I’m sure I can quibble with at the edges, but which recognizes that imperative and creates an organizing opportunity for the grassroots volunteers who really built the new kind of politics in the state. It’s a credit to state party chair Charlie Dingman, who so far has navigated a treacherous path pretty well.” (07/13/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/07/13/maines-hybrid-nomination-can-harness-grassroots-energy/
-----
50) Lindsey Graham and Our Vile Pro-War Culture
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Sen. Lindsey Graham, the arch-warmonger from South Carolina, has died. He leaves behind a legacy of death, destruction, and massive human suffering. Graham cheered on every foreign war and every sanctions regime for at least the last thirty years, and he was among the loudest advocates for the criminal attack on Iran. He finally got that one last evil war that he wanted before the end. In a city full of bloodthirsty militarists, Graham distinguished himself as one of the worst.” (07/12/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/lindsey-graham-and-our-vile-pro-war
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 07/13/26
Source: Reason
“Did Lindsey Graham Push Trump Toward War?” (07/13/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/07/13/did-lindsey-graham-push-trump-toward-war/
-----
52) Rising, 07/13/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar reflecting on the career of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who died on Saturday at the age of 71.” (07/13/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5962170-rising-july-13-2026/
-----
53) Radio Atlantic, 07/13/26
Source: The Atlantic
“The War Trump Can’t Control.” (07/13/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/07/ra-iran-reescalation/687849/
-----
54) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 07/13/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“A Nation Wrestles With God: American Prophets, Philosophers, and Firebrands w/ Ilan Stavans.” (07/13/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/istavans7-14-26/
-----
55) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/13/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Trump: ‘WE Are Going To Control Hormuz Strait!'” (07/13/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1qKVmmevZWMxB
-----
56) EconTalk, 07/13/26
Source: EconTalk
“From Sawdust to Paw Patrol: The Spin Master Story (with Ronnen Harary).” (07/13/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/from-sawdust-to-paw-patrol-the-spin-master-story-with-ronnen-harary/
-----
57) The Reconstruction Agenda, 07/13/26
Source: The UnPopulist
“Fixing America’s Negative Polarization With Proportional Representation: A Conversation With Lee Drutman.” (07/13/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/fixing-americas-negative-polarization
-----
58) Pink Flame of Liberty, 07/12/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Harpole v. Owens – Mass Recusal of Judges and TWITTER SLOP.” (07/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WygztWJrQ9M
-----
59) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 09/12/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Iran Says Hormuz Closed as US Continues Strikes, Lindsey Graham Dies at 71, and More.” (07/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1oSTSBscgA
-----
60) Free Talk Live, 07/12/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“HB 1268 a major win for education freedom in NH :: Mark Edge joins us remotely :: Is NH the ‘most free’ place? :: New entry/exit policy in EU slowing down airport lines :: Sarah in NM calls about the Spanish/American war and driver licenses :: U.N. secretary general wants AI killer robots banned :: David in NM calls to ask about salt lending :: sa...@markedge.org :: web blocking not going as smoothly as hoped by those who demanded it :: 2026-07-12 :: Hosts: Stu, Mr. Penguin, Mark Edge.” (07/12/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-07-12
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Today's Freedom News:
1) Iranian forces hit tankers after third night of US attacks
2) Judge halts Trump’s settlement with IRS
3) Hungary: Parliament passes constitutional amendment to remove Orbán-era president
4) SC: McMaster appoints Graham’s sister to finish his US Senate term
5) MN: Prosecutors get long-withheld evidence in Good, Pretti murders
6) Guinea-Bissau: Junta Court Orders Opposition Leader Back to Jail
7) Trump regulators move to curtail lending to immigrants without Very Special Important Permission Slips
8) Colombia: Petro blocks military inauguration for successor
9) Paramount, WBD hit with lawsuit from 12 states, including California, to block merger
10) Hegseth says US regime is creating task force to prosecute leaks to news media
11) South Africa: Blow to corruption case as key suspect pulls out of plea deal
12) India: Inflation accelerates to 4.38% in June, exceeding forecasts
13) EU rallies dozens of nations to pledge $1 billion for recovery fund in Gaza
14) El Salvador: Party nominates Bukele for third term as president
15) ME: ICE gang murders driver
16) Keystone Pipeline System’s Operator Agrees to Pay a $26.9 Million Penalty Over a Major Kansas Oil Spill
17) New era for Gibraltar with removal of 118-year-old border controls with Spain
18) EU: Von der Leyen fantasizes about censoring Internet for kids
19) CA: Infinite scroll may become endangered if controversial state law passes
20) US DOJ investigating allegations against UAW president Shawn Fain
Today's Freedom Commentary:
21) The Ghost in the State
22) The Problem Isn’t Old Public Officials
23) Hiding Racism and Nativism Behind “Heritage American”
24) While the Political Circus Distracts Us, Flock Builds the Digital Police State
25) Microlooters and Macrolooters
26) Graham Platner and the Rationalization of Everything
27) Trump’s Health Is … Complicated
28) Congressional Ratification of President Trump’s Corporatism
29) Lindsey Graham’s Legacy? It’s About One Thing Only, and It Isn’t Good
30) DEI“A” Directive Denied
31) The Democratic Socialists Aren’t Fringe Anymore
32) A Doctor in the Chemist’s
33) It’s Been Ten Years; Time To Admit Bernie Sanders Was Wrong
34) $6 million a day: Trump’s disclosures show he is the swamp’s biggest monster
35) The Best Thing About Wokeness
36) Don’t Blame the Billionaires, Change the Incentives
37) NY business group campaigns to end “Prohibition-era” alcohol restrictions statewide
38) The Digital Euro’s New Chapter
39) First Amendment Protects Universities From Florida’s Stop WOKE Act
40) Keeping Cool: The Air Conditioner That Changed America
41) NATO 3.0 Emerges Alive and Dangerous from the Ankara Summit
42) A new US-Iran war would end where the last one did
43) Magnificent Humanity, Poor Economics
44) Graham Crackers: The Words of a Professional Warmonger
45) Is China funding the Democratic Socialist wave in US politics?
46) Trump’s New Iran Strikes Are Turning Failure Into a Wider Disaster
47) Let’s Rethink the Primary Process for 2028
48) Lindsey Graham Dies at 71: A Libertarian Review of His Legacy
49) Maine’s Hybrid Nomination Can Harness Grassroots Energy
50) Lindsey Graham and Our Vile Pro-War Culture
Today's Freedom Podcast and Video:
51) Reason Roundtable, 07/13/26
52) Rising, 07/13/26
53) Radio Atlantic, 07/13/26
54) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 07/13/26
55) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/13/26
56) EconTalk, 07/13/26
57) The Reconstruction Agenda, 07/13/26
58) Pink Flame of Liberty, 07/12/26
59) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 09/12/26
60) Free Talk Live, 07/12/26
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_____ Today's Freedom News _____
1) Iranian forces hit tankers after third night of US attacks
Source: Reuters
“The US military carried out a third night of strikes against Iran after President Donald Trump said he is reinstating its blockade of Iranian shipping. The United Arab Emirates says at least two tankers came under Iranian fire in the Strait of Hormuz that Iran insists it has the right to control. Trump earlier declared the United States would ensure the Hormuz strait is open and said it would charge a 20% fee. Bahrain and Jordan say they have intercepted new Iranian attacks on Tuesday as Tehran retaliates with missiles and drones across the Gulf.” (07/14/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/iran-war-live-us-launches-new-strikes-iran-more-tankers-attacked-hormuz-2026-07-14/
-----
2) Judge halts Trump’s settlement with IRS
Source: The Hill
“A federal judge Monday voided President Trump’s settlement with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), finding that the lawsuit that served as the hook for the $1.776 billion so-called Anti-Weaponization fund amounted to collusion as the two parties were never truly averse. The ruling from U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams comes after she was asked to reopen the case [by] intervenors who said a settlement to create an ‘anti-weaponization’ fund tainted the case. … Williams found that Trump’s $10 billion case against the IRS was ‘brought for an improper purpose—to gain the imprimatur of judicial legitimacy for a ‘settlement’ that had no viable basis in law or fact.”’ As part of the order, the judge also referred Trump’s lawyer Alejandro Brito to the Florida bar for consideration of disciplinary action after finding that sanctions were warranted.” (07/13/26)
https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5966060-trump-irs-settlement-voided-federal-judge
-----
3) Hungary: Parliament passes constitutional amendment to remove Orbán-era president
Source: ABC News
“Hungary’s Parliament voted Monday to pass a constitutional amendment aimed at removing President Tamás Sulyok, part of an effort by the country’s new leadership to dismantle the autocratic political system of former prime minister Viktor Orbán. After winning in a landslide election in April, Prime Minister Péter Magyar and his pro-European, center-right Tisza party hold a two-thirds majority in Parliament, allowing them to make constitutional changes and roll back many of the policies Orbán implemented during his 16 years in power. The constitutional amendment, which had the stated purpose of ‘restoring rule-of-law democracy,’ passed with 139 votes for and six against. Tisza lawmakers held a standing ovation after the vote, while lawmakers from Orbán’s far-right Fidesz party boycotted the parliamentary session.” (07/13/26)
https://abcnews.com/International/wireStory/hungary-passes-constitutional-amendment-remove-orbn-era-president-134720264
-----
4) SC: McMaster appoints Graham’s sister to finish his US Senate term
Source: NBC News
“South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster on Monday appointed Darline Graham Nordone, the sister of Sen. Lindsey Graham, to serve the remainder of the late Republican senator’s term, which ends in early January. … Graham Nordone will finish her brother’s six-year term, which ends Jan. 3. The senator died Saturday at the age of 71 of what was preliminarily diagnosed as a rupture of his aorta due to a hardening of his arteries, his office said Sunday. … It’s unclear if Graham Nordone would want to run for her brother’s seat. Graham had been seeking a fifth term in the Senate in this year’s midterm elections after defeating a wealthy GOP challenger in his state’s Republican primary last month.” (07/13/26)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2026-election/trump-lindsey-graham-sister-darline-mcmaster-appoint-senate-term-rcna587302
-----
5) MN: Prosecutors get long-withheld evidence in Good, Pretti murders
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Previously withheld evidence regarding the [murders] of Renée Good and Alex Pretti is now in the hands of Minnesota prosecutors, helping the state gain clarity on the [murders] that occurred earlier this year during protests against a federal immigration crackdown. ‘Through the cooperation of our federal partners, we have obtained hard drives of previously withheld evidence in the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and the shooting of Julio Sosa-Celis,’ the Hennepin county attorney, Mary Moriarty, said in a video statement posted on social media. The newly obtained evidence includes Good’s car, statements, police body-camera video and other evidence that federal officials had previously withheld in the [murders].” (07/13/26)
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/13/renee-good-alex-pretti-minnesota-evidence
-----
6) Guinea-Bissau: Junta Court Orders Opposition Leader Back to Jail
Source: US News & World Report
“Guinea-Bissau opposition leader and former Prime Minister Domingos Simoes Pereira was moved back to prison last Friday following a decision by the West African country’s military court, his family told Reuters. The junta that seized power in Guinea-Bissau in a coup last year released Pereira, the leader of the revolutionary PAIGC party, in February in an apparent attempt to appease the West African regional bloc ECOWAS. He had remained under house arrest on suspicion of economic crimes. … Pereira was previously detained on November 26 when a group of army officers seized power before the planned announcement of presidential election results.” (07/13/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2026-07-13/guinea-bissau-military-court-orders-opposition-leader-back-to-jail
-----
7) Trump regulators move to curtail lending to immigrants without Very Special Important Permission Slips
Source: Politico
“Federal regulators on Monday directed banks and credit unions to more closely scrutinize the loans they make to immigrants who are in the country illegally [sic], as part of the Trump administration’s broader immigration crackdown. In new guidance, regulators said that undocumented immigrants may present an ‘elevated credit risk’ and warned banks to account for the risk that they may lose their job or be deported as they underwrite new loans. Financial institutions, the guidance says, should take into account that a customer’s status as an unauthorized immigrant may pose a risk to their ability to repay credit cards, mortgages, auto loans or other loans.” (07/13/26)
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/07/13/trump-regulators-move-to-curtail-lending-to-undocumented-immigrants-00994688
-----
8) Colombia: Petro blocks military inauguration for successor
Source: United Press International
“Outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro has barred President-elect Abelardo De la Espriella from holding his inauguration at a military base, triggering an unprecedented institutional dispute that has clouded the transfer of power and underscored the country’s deep political polarization. Citing his authority as commander-in-chief of the armed forces until Aug. 7, the leftist president blocked De la Espriella’s plan to take the oath of office before military personnel. The incoming government had sought to use the ceremony to signal a sharp break with the outgoing administration’s security policies.” (07/13/26)
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2026/07/13/latam-colombia-petro-bars-Espriella-military-base-inauguration/5521783958093/
-----
9) Paramount, WBD hit with lawsuit from 12 states, including California, to block merger
Source: CNBC
“A group of 12 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging Paramount Skydance’s
proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. The lawsuit seeking to block the merger for antitrust concerns was brought by a group including California Attorney General Rob Bonta. CNBC’s David Faber reported earlier that the lawsuit was expected to come on Monday. Representatives for Paramount and Bonta didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. The deal would combine two storied film studios — Paramount and Warner Bros. — as well as streaming platforms Paramount+ and HBO Max.” (07/13/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/13/paramount-wbd-merger-lawsuit.html
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10) Hegseth says US regime is creating task force to prosecute leaks to news media
Source: Reuters
“The U.S. Department of Justice and the Pentagon have created a joint task force to identify and prosecute what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described as unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information to news media. ‘I have delegated tasking authority to the War Department’s [sic] Office of General Counsel, empowering OGC to request and receive all information, records, and support across the department concerning media leak investigations,’ Hegseth said in a video posted to X.” [editor’s note: The War Department doesn’t have an Office of General Counsel because the War Department doesn’t exist – TLK] (07/13/26)
https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/us-creates-task-force-prosecute-leaks-news-media-hegseth-says-2026-07-13/
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11) South Africa: Blow to corruption case as key suspect pulls out of plea deal
Source: BBC News [UK state media]
“Vusimusi ‘Cat’ Matlala, a key figure in a ongoing police corruption inquiry in South Africa, has withdrawn from a controversial plea deal, serving a blow to prosecutors. The business tycoon pulled out of the agreement after a South African court recommended a higher jail sentence – 12 years instead of the agreed eight. Matlala was accused of bribing top police officials to win a 360m rand ($22m; £16.5m) tender for his health company Medicare24 in 2024. He pleaded guilty last month, as part of a deal that could have seen Matlala giving key evidence against senior officials. Though disappointed by Matlala’s U-turn, the state still believes it has a ‘strong and winnable case’, Kaizer Kganyago, a spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) told journalists on Monday.” (07/13/26)
https://archive.is/hnIax
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12) India: Inflation accelerates to 4.38% in June, exceeding forecasts
Source: CNBC
“India’s consumer price inflation rose to 4.38% in June, up from 3.93% in May as the U.S.-Iran war and a weak monsoon raised food and fuel prices, adding to cost pressures. The headline inflation number was above economists’ expectations for a 4.30% rise, according to a Reuters poll. … Last month, India’s central bank kept interest rates unchanged but said it expects inflation to rise and growth to temper in the financial year ending March 2027.” (07/13/26)
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/13/india-june-inflation-oil-food-iran-war.html
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13) EU rallies dozens of nations to pledge $1 billion for recovery fund in Gaza
Source: SFGate
“The European Union coordinated efforts to raise 900 million euros ($1 billion) in aid for Gaza, working with 65 governments and organizations including the White House and the United Nations, the bloc’s top diplomat said Monday. Kaja Kallas announced the fund after a meeting of the Palestine Donors Group in Brussels. ‘The EU is the most credible supporter, for the Palestinian people. We are the largest donor and the strongest backer of the two-state solution,’ she said. The meeting was the second gathering of the Team Gaza Initiative, an effort by the EU to rally support for recovery projects like sanitation and farming in the destitute and war-ravaged coastal enclave of some 2 million people.” (07/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/eu-rallies-dozens-of-nations-to-pledge-1-billion-22343244.php
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14) El Salvador: Party nominates Bukele for third term as president
Source: Yahoo! News
“El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has secured the nomination of his ruling Nuevas Ideas party for the 2027 presidential election, the party said late on Sunday, following legal changes that cleared the way for his seeking a third term. … In July 2025, the ruling party’s allies in Congress dismantled previous constitutional safeguards and approved new measures that allow indefinite presidential reelection.” (07/13/26)
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/el-salvador-presidents-party-nominates-115541893.html
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15) ME: ICE gang murders driver
Source: New York Post
“A driver was shot dead Monday while [supposedly] trying to mow down Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) [gang members] in Maine, according to authorities. Graphic footage on social media shows a man lying by the side of the road near a car, with a bullet hole visible through the driver’s side of the front windshield following the incident in Biddeford just after 7:15 a.m., the Portland Press Herald reported. The unidentified driver reportedly accelerated at ICE [gang members] at an intersection in the small town before the officers shot him dead, eyewitnesses said. … Details on the fatal shooting are still coming through, although locals reported seeing an increase in ICE [gang] activity in Biddeford in recent weeks.” (07/13/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/13/us-news/ice-fatally-shoots-driver-in-maine-after-he-tried-to-mow-down-agents-authorities/
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16) Keystone Pipeline System’s Operator Agrees to Pay a $26.9 Million Penalty Over a Major Kansas Oil Spill
Source: US News & World Report
“A proposed legal settlement with the U.S. government would require the Keystone Pipeline system’s operator to pay a $26.9 million civil penalty over a major oil spill in Kansas in December 2022 and spend about $40 million more to prevent future accidents. The agreement would resolve allegations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Kansas that South Bow, based in Canada, violated U.S. and state clean water laws. The rupture dumped nearly 13,000 barrels of heavy crude oil into a creek running through a rural pasture in Washington County, Kansas, about 150 miles (241 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City.” (07/12/26)
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/kansas/articles/2026-07-12/keystone-pipeline-systems-operator-agrees-to-pay-a-26-9m-penalty-over-a-major-kansas-oil-spill
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17) New era for Gibraltar with removal of 118-year-old border controls with Spain
Source: BBC News [UK State Media]
“Every weekday morning, Shilpi Chotrani rides her bicycle from her home in the Spanish town of La Línea de la Concepción to Gibraltar. It’s a short journey but it means crossing an international border. A British Overseas Territory of around 40,000 inhabitants, Gibraltar has a border control for those entering and leaving. That means that during the morning and afternoon rush hours, when around 15,000 Spaniards who work in the territory cross the frontier, there can be long, time-consuming queues. … But from 15 July, it is scheduled to see a new development – the removal of the border, allowing freedom of movement between Spain and Gibraltar.” (07/13/26)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwydz60j3eno
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18) EU: Von der Leyen fantasizes about censoring Internet for kids
Source: Politico
“The European Union will [pretend it has the ability to] impose a minimum age for young internet users to access social media without parental supervision, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Monday. … Von der Leyen said the bloc would consider age restrictions for other online services too, and will start work on determining which platforms are harmful [sic] to minors.” (07/13/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/vdl-announces-age-restrictions-for-social-media-and-other-platforms/
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19) CA: Infinite scroll may become endangered if controversial state law passes
Source: SFGate
“Social media companies might soon be forced to remove the addictive features that keep teenagers online for hours on end — including the ubiquitous infinite scroll. Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, a Democrat from Long Beach, initially introduced Assembly Bill 1709 in February as a proposal that would prohibit teenagers from using social media platforms that are designed to be dangerously addictive. But after deliberations over several hearings in the California Legislature between lawmakers, advocates and a prominent Big Tech lobby, all agreed that age-gating the internet could ultimately do more harm than good. So, last month, Lowenthal amended his bill to instead require the companies, including behemoths like Meta and Reddit, to come up with an alternative, less addictive feed for underage users. If the companies can’t abide, then kids under 16 will be unable to make accounts on their platforms.” (07/13/26)
https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/meta-social-media-teenagers-22337724.php
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20) US DOJ investigating allegations against UAW president Shawn Fain
Source: Fortune
“The US Justice Department launched a grand jury investigation into allegations that the head of the United Auto Workers pressured another high-ranking union official to secure benefits for his fiancée and her sister, according to internal communications within the labor organization. A federal grand jury has subpoenaed the union’s court-appointed monitor as it probes the claims against President Shawn Fain, according to emails seen by Bloomberg News. The messages were sent to Fain, UAW Vice President Rich Boyer and members of the law firm representing the union. Fain called the allegations ‘false’ in a statement to Bloomberg and accused Boyer, whose complaints to the monitor drew early scrutiny to union leadership, of trying to influence the upcoming UAW election.” (07/12/26)
https://fortune.com/2026/07/12/doj-investigation-grand-jury-uaw-president-shawn-fain/
_____ Today's Freedom Commentary _____
21) The Ghost in the State
Source: Liberalism.org
by Michael C Munger
“British philosopher Gilbert Ryle famously mocked Descartes’s notion of mind/body dualism, dubbing it ‘the ghost in the machine.’ The mind is in the body, but it’s not of the body. The mind controls the body, independently, ‘everywhere yet nowhere.’ There is a related problem in identifying a ‘will’ in the state: is the state the sort of thing that can have an active, separate will? Or is the will of the state simply the aggregate of individual goals, actions, and votes? The branch of political theory I inhabit, public choice, holds that ghosts don’t exist, because a foundational assumption is methodological individualism. But many people have argued for a romantic, collectivist approach.” (07/13/26)
https://www.liberalism.org/p/the-ghost-in-the-state
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22) The Problem Isn’t Old Public Officials
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger
“With the death of 71-year-old U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham and the hospitalization of 84-year-old U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, not to mention the 80-year-old President Trump, some commentators are questioning whether it’s a good thing that the federal government has so many senior citizens working in it. … The problem America faces, however, is not the old age of its federal officials but rather the dysfunctional systems that 20th-century and 21st-century Americans have grafted onto the federal government. Those systems have brought failure, death, and destruction of liberty and privacy. The result would be no different if the federal government were being run by people with an average age of 45.” (07/13/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/07/13/the-problem-isnt-old-public-officials/
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23) Hiding Racism and Nativism Behind “Heritage American”
Source: Exiled Policy
by Jason Pye
“Ayn Rand captured the moral bankruptcy of racism better than almost anyone when she wrote that it is ‘the lowest, most crudely primitive form of collectivism.’ She understood that racism reduces human beings to representatives of a group, assigning moral, social, and political significance to ancestry rather than treating people as individuals. That’s why phrases like ‘heritage American’ bother me. The phrase is deliberately vague. … Every American has a heritage. The descendants of enslaved people have one. The descendants of Ellis Island immigrants have one. The children of Vietnamese refugees have one. Native Americans certainly have one. Heritage isn’t the distinguishing feature. The phrase only makes sense if ‘heritage’ refers to a particular ancestry that some people believe is more authentically American than others.” (07/13/26)
https://exiledpolicy.substack.com/p/hiding-racism-and-nativism-behind
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24) While the Political Circus Distracts Us, Flock Builds the Digital Police State
Source: Rutherford Institute
by John & Nisha Whitehead
“The government is watching. It watches where you go, whom you meet, where you worship, what medical offices you visit, what political rallies you attend, what protests you join, what books you read, what websites you visit and what causes you support. It watches through your phone, your car, your doorbell, your appliances, your purchases, your social media accounts and the cameras positioned along the roads you travel every day. This is how freedom dies in the digital police state: not always through dramatic declarations of martial law or soldiers stationed on every street corner, but through the gradual construction of a technological dragnet—an electronic concentration camp—so pervasive that privacy becomes impossible and anonymity becomes suspicious.” (07/13/26)
https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/while_the_political_circus_distracts_us_flock_builds_the_digital_police_state
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25) Microlooters and Macrolooters
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders
“Jennifer Baker, PhD, receives about $100,000 per year in monetary compensation, plus an additional ~$30,000 in benefits. Because she works at a state university—The University of Charleston—supported by both state and federal taxpayers, she is the direct beneficiary of what we might call macrolooting. Her salary depends, at least in part, on compulsory taxation, placing her in the comfortable position of evaluating the ethics of breaching paywalls while leaving the coercive institutions that fund her livelihood unexamined. … ‘let’s turn now to the subject of ‘microlooting.’ Here, Baker opens a recent Psychology Today post. ‘If you deliberately scan one fewer lemon than you are taking at the self-checkout at Whole Foods, you might be ‘microlooting.'” (07/13/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/microlooters-and-macrolooters
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26) Graham Platner and the Rationalization of Everything
Source: American Greatness
by Stephen Soukup
“Regular readers may note that I am rather deeply haunted by a paragraph written almost exactly a decade ago by the late, great Angelo Codevilla. It was, perhaps, his most important warning to us, and it remains one of the few political predictions ever made that keeps me awake at night. In the waning days of the 2016 campaign, after watching the way the entire ruling class had mobilized to deride Donald Trump and to ensure his defeat, Codevilla penned an essay titled After the Republic, in which he forewarned: We have stepped over the threshold of a revolution. It is difficult to imagine how we might step back, and futile to speculate where it will end. Our ruling class’s malfeasance, combined with insult, brought it about. Donald Trump did not cause it and is by no means its ultimate manifestation.” (07/13/26)
https://amgreatness.com/2026/07/13/graham-platner-and-the-rationalization-of-everything/
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27) Trump’s Health Is … Complicated
Source: Persuasion
by Sam Kahn
“He isn’t as decrepit as Democrats pretend. But Republicans are slowly imagining a post-Trump world.” (07/13/26)
https://www.persuasion.community/p/trump-is-old-but-senile-probably
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28) Congressional Ratification of President Trump’s Corporatism
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul
“Despite regularly denouncing the rising socialist menace, President Trump has been pursuing a policy arguably just as, if not more, dangerous to liberty and prosperity as anything proposed by Zohran Mamdani or Bernie Sanders: using government funds to purchase partial ownership of private companies. The Trump administration has obtained ownership interests of approximately 27 billion dollars in 30 companies since January of 2025. While President Trump and his defenders claim making these ‘investments’ will benefit the American people, the truth is this policy will harm most Americans.” (07/13/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/congressional-ratification-of-president-trumps-corporatism
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29) Lindsey Graham’s Legacy? It’s About One Thing Only, and It Isn’t Good
Source: The New Republic
by Michael Tomasky
“He alone had the moral authority within the Republican Party to try to stop Donald Trump, especially after January 6. He chose not to. That’s what we must remember today.” (07/13/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/212980/lindsey-graham-legacy-trump-enabler
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30) DEI“A” Directive Denied
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“Daymon Johnson has been fighting to speak freely. A professor at Bakersfield College, a community college in California, Johnson has for years been bucking a mandate that he parrot the state’s ‘DEI’ and ‘anti-racist’ ideology — well, DEIA now: ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ — lest he face disciplinary action or receive the boot. Community colleges, remember, are creations of the state, and Professor Johnson was being forced, by state directive, to mouth specific bureaucratic verbiage as if he were a mere functionary under a central planning board. … this imperfect ruling paves the way for further vindications.” (07/13/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/07/13/deia-directive-denied/
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31) The Democratic Socialists Aren’t Fringe Anymore
Source: Town Hall
by Jay Rogers
“I spend my days reading growth curves. A pension fund’s unfunded liability, a private equity fund’s internal rate of return, a hedge fund’s drawdown. You learn to read a line on a chart the way a doctor reads one on a different kind of monitor. Most political organizations produce a flat line for decades, a small bump around an election, then flat again. The Democratic Socialists of America just produced a line that would get flagged in any diligence memo I’ve written in 30 years. An organization with 6,000 members in 2015 crossed 100,000 in February 2026, and by this July had passed the old high-water mark for American socialism: the roughly 113,000 members the Socialist Party of America claimed at its 1912 peak under Eugene Debs. DSA now calls itself, correctly, the largest socialist organization in American history.” (07/13/26)
https://townhall.com/columnists/jay-rogers/2026/07/13/the-democratic-socialists-arent-fringe-anymore-n2679278
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32) A Doctor in the Chemist’s
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie
“There is a small alcove at the back of most chemist shops these days, usually curtained off, where a pharmacist jabs your arm with a flu vaccine or a Covid booster while you sit with your sleeve rolled up. It is, in its modest way, one of the great quiet successes of British healthcare over the last decade. Nobody voted for it, nobody legislated it into being with a grand ten-year plan, and yet it works. It exists because Boots and Superdrug and the local independents worked out that people would pay a small sum for convenience, speed, and the absence of a three-week wait. I propose that we should extend this principle, and put a doctor in there as well.” (07/13/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/a-doctor-in-the-chemists
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33) It’s Been Ten Years; Time To Admit Bernie Sanders Was Wrong
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone
“Everyone’s talking about how progressive Democrat Graham Platner has been forced to drop out of his Senate race following allegations of sexual assault. Personally I never paid attention to Platner’s campaign, because I long ago stopped taking Democrats seriously. The first clue that Platner was a shitty person wasn’t his military service or his Blackwater stint or his tattoo or the sexual assault stuff, it was that he ran for high office in the US government under one of America’s two mainstream parties. That’s damning in and of itself. I said this on Twitter today and some DSA guy told me the best way to make changes in US politics is to work within the Democratic Party to elect left-wing candidates and advance progressive agendas.” (07/10/26)
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2026/07/10/its-been-ten-years-its-time-to-admit-bernie-sanders-was-wrong/
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34) $6 million a day: Trump’s disclosures show he is the swamp’s biggest monster
Source: The Hill
by Svante Myrick
“President Trump told his followers he would ‘drain the swamp.’ Instead, he became the biggest swamp monster ever. He has obliterated the line between public service and personal enrichment. Trump’s recent financial disclosures revealed that he made $2.2 billion in the year since he returned to office. That is a breathtaking figure. It is more than 20 times the annual budget of the city of Ithaca, N.Y., where I served as mayor for 10 years. In other words, Trump raked in, on average, more than $6 million a day, seven days a week.” (07/13/26)
https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/5963054-trump-corruption-financial-disclosures/
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35) The Best Thing About Wokeness
Source: Bet On It
by Bryan Caplan
“What’s the best thing about wokeness? Simple: Holding people in the past to universal moral standards. History is packed with mass murder, slavery, and other atrocities, often committed by famous beloved figures like Columbus and the American Founding Fathers. When confronted with these harsh realities, most thinkers try to weasel out with a variation on, ‘It was a very different time.’ The woke, on the other hand, want to not only teach kids about mass murder and slavery, but tear down the statues of mass murderers and slavers. Which is the rational position. … Sadly, wokeness aggressively refuses to universalize its own universalism. If we should hold people in the past to universal moral standards, we should also hold people in the present to universal moral standards, not credulously accept lame, lawyerly excuses like, ‘In their culture, this is normal’ or ‘Given their life story, we mustn’t blame them.'” (07/13/26)
https://www.betonit.ai/p/the-best-thing-about-wokeness
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36) Don’t Blame the Billionaires, Change the Incentives
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by George Ford Smith
“One way a person can become a billionaire is by providing people with a product or service they want. As various economists have pointed out, the money people use to acquire the product or service is like a vote cast. The votes can change overnight if the entrepreneur fails to deliver what people want at a price they can afford, or if a competitor offers something people perceive as better or cheaper. This process of voluntary production and exchange is the free market in action. But security agencies are needed to keep this process free of coercion. … If government stayed in the role of rights-protector the market might function smoothly. But it has never remained confined to that purpose. The idea of ‘protection’ has expanded over time to become a lucrative racket.” (07/13/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/dont-blame-billionaires-change-incentives
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37) NY business group campaigns to end “Prohibition-era” alcohol restrictions statewide
Source: Fox News
by Lindsay Kornick
“The Business Council of New York State is seeking to repeal ‘Prohibition-era’ alcohol laws. The New York Post reported that the organization launched its ‘New Yorkers Cheers for Change’ campaign on Sunday, pushing a proposal that would counter the state’s restrictions on alcohol sales. ‘New York has some of the most restrictive Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) laws the entire nation because they were created during the Prohibition-era. Current ABC laws impede economic growth, job opportunities, consumer choice, and New York’s own wine and distilled spirits industry,’ the organization’s website read. The ‘Cheers for Change’ campaign followed the 2023 Commission to Study Reform of the Alcohol Beverage Control Law, launched under New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, to recommend ways to update state laws, such as relaxing its 200 Foot Law and 500 Foot Law.” (07/13/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/media/new-york-business-group-campaigns-end-prohibition-era-alcohol-restrictions-statewide
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38) The Digital Euro’s New Chapter
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Cláudia Ascensão Nunes
“In the end, the digital euro does not liberate Europe, modernize it, or make payments more convenient. It merely changes who holds control, shifting it from American private companies to European public authorities, and strengthens that control in the process. At its core, this project reveals a profound civilizational choice: money ceases to belong primarily to individuals, as the state assumes the power to define the limits of financial freedom.” (07/13/26)
https://fee.org/articles/the-digital-euros-new-chapter/
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39) First Amendment Protects Universities From Florida’s Stop WOKE Act
Source: Reason
by JD Tuccille
“The cure for a regime of establishment-approved ideology does not come from government censorship of conversations. That should be clear to anybody who believes in freedom, and it’s a point strongly made by a federal appeals court in overruling Florida’s Stop WOKE Act. Saying the First Amendment is incompatible with ‘an official government line—in a college classroom of all places,’ the court overruled the state’s effort to battle ideological orthodoxy by imposing its own orthodoxy.” (07/13/26)
https://reason.com/2026/07/13/first-amendment-protects-universities-from-floridas-stop-woke-act/
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40) Keeping Cool: The Air Conditioner That Changed America
Source: The Daily Economy
by Gale Pooley
“With sweltering temperatures once again gripping much of the world, it is worth appreciating air conditioning — the quiet invention that transforms dangerous heat into manageable discomfort, shields millions from heat-related suffering and death, boosts productivity, and makes once-hostile climates livable. It is a powerful reminder that wealth, innovation, and human ingenuity enable societies to adapt to nature’s extremes and protect human life. To understand why the US heat death rate is 59 times lower than that of Europe, it helps to begin with a young engineer named Willis Carrier.” (07/13/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/keeping-cool-the-air-conditioner-that-changed-america/
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41) NATO 3.0 Emerges Alive and Dangerous from the Ankara Summit
Source: Common Dreams
by Joseph Gerson
“Despite its well-advertised tensions and tectonic geopolitical changes, this week’s NATO summit demonstrated that NATO has survived and is resilient. It remains committed to reinforcing US hegemony across Europe and globally. Not a lot has changed since former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote that US global dominance relies on controlling the periphery of Eurasia: NATO in the West, in Southwest Asia to the South, as well as its Asia-Pacific allies from South Korea and Japan through the Philippines and Australia. In the 21st century, military planning as well as trade is deeply integrated across these three regions. The Summit served to reinforce what is emerging as a new bloc system for our yet to be named era. Threatened by the US and NATO, as John Mearsheimer remarked, Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea each see the US as a mortal enemy.” (07/13/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/ankara-nato-summit
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42) A new US-Iran war would end where the last one did
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Trita Parsi
“For all practical purposes, the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of (Mis)Understanding is over. The dispute over how to manage the Strait of Hormuz in the interim has pushed the two sides back into open war. But to what end? There is little reason to believe another round of fighting can alter the fundamentals enough to change the reality from which the two sides must ultimately negotiate. If they are fortunate, the MOU’s collapse may yield another round of talks in which the allure of reshaping facts on the ground through force has finally faded.” (07/13/26)
https://responsiblestatecraft.org/iran-mou-hormuz/
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43) Magnificent Humanity, Poor Economics
Source: Law & Liberty
by Samuel Gregg
“Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas (MH), seeks to inject wisdom into a discussion often dominated by two extremes. The first is a wild-eyed techno-utopianism that would drag us into what the Cambridge literary critic F. R. Leavis called a ‘technologico-Benthamite civilization.’ The second is a techno-catastrophism inclined to see every technological development as an existential threat to humanity. In many ways, MH is an impressive document. … There is, however, one matter that has been passed over too lightly. This concerns MH’s commentary on economic questions.” (07/13/26)
https://lawliberty.org/magnificent-humanity-poor-economics/
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44) Graham Crackers: The Words of a Professional Warmonger
Source: CounterPunch
by Jeffrey St. Clair
“Ultimately, Lindsey Graham will go down as an inconsequential figure in American history, a bloodthirsty cheerleader for some of the nation’s most disastrous wars who lacked the courage to stand up for the few convictions he once held. To paraphrase Henry Kissinger on Bill Clinton being called a war criminal, ‘Lindsey Graham doesn’t have the moral fortitude to be consigned to the 9th Circle of Hell with the A-listers.’ He’ll have to settle for some more obscure region of eternal torment, where nobody will even recall his name.” (07/13/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/07/13/graham-crackers-the-words-of-a-professional-warmonger/
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45) Is China funding the Democratic Socialist wave in US politics?
Source: New York Post
by staff
“Beware: The Chinese Communist Party is plainly exploiting the opaque ownership structure of multinational tech companies to fund far-left political subversion across America. Shanghai-based Maoist tech millionaire Neville Roy Singham is a notorious funder of outfits like the crypto-communist People’s Forum, which organizes radical protest-riots in support of Hamas terrorism and protecting the butchers who control Iran; his wife co-leads extremist Code Pink while his niece is a big player in the Democratic Socialists of America and a prominent adviser to Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The Singhams got crazy-rich in the tech industry, but you have to wonder if Beijing staged their success to ‘wash’ a vast fortune that could then undermine the United States, the chief barrier to CCP world domination.” (07/13/26)
https://nypost.com/2026/07/13/opinion/is-china-funding-the-democratic-socialist-wave-in-us-politics/
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46) Trump’s New Iran Strikes Are Turning Failure Into a Wider Disaster
Source: Antiwar.com
by Brian Hudson
“The easiest mistake in war is to confuse the ability to strike again with proof that the previous strike worked. Donald Trump is making that mistake in Iran. The latest U.S. attacks may destroy more military assets and infrastructure, but they do not answer the political question that has haunted this war from the beginning: what outcome is all this destruction supposed to produce?” (07/13/26)
https://original.antiwar.com/brian_hudson/2026/07/12/trumps-new-iran-strikes-are-turning-failure-into-a-wider-disaster/
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47) Let’s Rethink the Primary Process for 2028
Source: Liberal Currents
by David Faris
“Primary season is closer than you think— can Democrats avoid their most damaging mistakes of 2020?” (07/12/26)
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/its-time-to-rethink-the-2028-primary-process/
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48) Lindsey Graham Dies at 71: A Libertarian Review of His Legacy
Source: Karl Dickey’s Freedom Vanguard
by Karl Dickey
“Senator Graham spent 23 years expanding government surveillance and funding foreign wars. Voters must now demand leaders who protect individual freedom and reject intervention.” (07/12/26)
https://palmbeachexaminer.substack.com/p/lindsey-graham-dies-at-71-a-libertarian
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49) Maine’s Hybrid Nomination Can Harness Grassroots Energy
Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“This week kicks off a 14-day sprint to choose the Democratic nominee in Maine, a race that could decide the U.S. Senate. When it became clear that Graham Platner wasn’t going to remain the nominee, I wrote that keeping the record number of Mainers who turned out for last month’s primary engaged and energized required a process that would allow them to participate, rather than a backroom affair. The Maine Democratic Party came up with something that I’m sure I can quibble with at the edges, but which recognizes that imperative and creates an organizing opportunity for the grassroots volunteers who really built the new kind of politics in the state. It’s a credit to state party chair Charlie Dingman, who so far has navigated a treacherous path pretty well.” (07/13/26)
https://prospect.org/2026/07/13/maines-hybrid-nomination-can-harness-grassroots-energy/
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50) Lindsey Graham and Our Vile Pro-War Culture
Source: Eunomia
by Daniel Larison
“Sen. Lindsey Graham, the arch-warmonger from South Carolina, has died. He leaves behind a legacy of death, destruction, and massive human suffering. Graham cheered on every foreign war and every sanctions regime for at least the last thirty years, and he was among the loudest advocates for the criminal attack on Iran. He finally got that one last evil war that he wanted before the end. In a city full of bloodthirsty militarists, Graham distinguished himself as one of the worst.” (07/12/26)
https://daniellarison.substack.com/p/lindsey-graham-and-our-vile-pro-war
_____ Today's Freedom Podcast and Video _____
51) Reason Roundtable, 07/13/26
Source: Reason
“Did Lindsey Graham Push Trump Toward War?” (07/13/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/07/13/did-lindsey-graham-push-trump-toward-war/
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52) Rising, 07/13/26
Source: The Hill
“Robby Soave gives his radar reflecting on the career of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who died on Saturday at the age of 71.” (07/13/26)
https://thehill.com/hilltv/5962170-rising-july-13-2026/
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53) Radio Atlantic, 07/13/26
Source: The Atlantic
“The War Trump Can’t Control.” (07/13/26)
https://www.theatlantic.com/podcasts/2026/07/ra-iran-reescalation/687849/
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54) Parallax Views w/ JG Michael, 07/13/26
Source: Parallax Views w/ JG Michael
“A Nation Wrestles With God: American Prophets, Philosophers, and Firebrands w/ Ilan Stavans.” (07/13/26)
https://parallaxviews.podbean.com/e/istavans7-14-26/
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55) Ron Paul Liberty Report, 07/13/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Trump: ‘WE Are Going To Control Hormuz Strait!'” (07/13/26)
https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1qKVmmevZWMxB
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56) EconTalk, 07/13/26
Source: EconTalk
“From Sawdust to Paw Patrol: The Spin Master Story (with Ronnen Harary).” (07/13/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/from-sawdust-to-paw-patrol-the-spin-master-story-with-ronnen-harary/
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57) The Reconstruction Agenda, 07/13/26
Source: The UnPopulist
“Fixing America’s Negative Polarization With Proportional Representation: A Conversation With Lee Drutman.” (07/13/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/fixing-americas-negative-polarization
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58) Pink Flame of Liberty, 07/12/26
Source: Pink Flame of Liberty
“Harpole v. Owens – Mass Recusal of Judges and TWITTER SLOP.” (07/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WygztWJrQ9M
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59) Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp, 09/12/26
Source: Antiwar.com
“Iran Says Hormuz Closed as US Continues Strikes, Lindsey Graham Dies at 71, and More.” (07/12/26)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1oSTSBscgA
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60) Free Talk Live, 07/12/26
Source: Free Talk Live
“HB 1268 a major win for education freedom in NH :: Mark Edge joins us remotely :: Is NH the ‘most free’ place? :: New entry/exit policy in EU slowing down airport lines :: Sarah in NM calls about the Spanish/American war and driver licenses :: U.N. secretary general wants AI killer robots banned :: David in NM calls to ask about salt lending :: sa...@markedge.org :: web blocking not going as smoothly as hoped by those who demanded it :: 2026-07-12 :: Hosts: Stu, Mr. Penguin, Mark Edge.” (07/12/26)
https://soundcloud.com/freetalklive/ftl2026-07-12
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